Primaris Real Estate Investment Trust

Good morning and welcome to primary three, second quarter 2024 results conference call. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute. After the prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. You may ask one question and a follow up, at which point you may return to the queue. I will now turn the call over to Claire Maheny, Vice President, Investor Relations and ESG. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. During this call, management of Primaris REIT may make forward-looking statements containing forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Primaris REIT's control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Additional information about these assumptions, risks, and uncertainties are contained in Primaris REIT's filings with securities regulators. These filings are also available on our website at primarisreit.com. I'll now turn the call over to Alex Avery, Primaris' Chief Executive Officer. Good morning.

Thanks, Claire. And thanks for joining Primaris REIT's second quarter 2024 conference call. Joining me today are Pat Sullivan, President and COO, Rags de Bloor, CFO, Morty Bobrowski, SVP Legal, Graham Proctor, SVP Asset Management, and Claire Mahaney, VP IR and ESG. With our second quarter results, we have delivered another very solid quarter with continued growth across virtually all of our metrics. 6.8% growth in SFO per unit. increased guidance for FFO per unit and NOI for 2024. Occupancy rose more than 3% from a year earlier for both in-place and committed occupancy. Importantly, we saw material improvement in our recovery ratios, which is an important but lagged manifestation of the progress we have been making converting pandemic-era lease modifications back to standard lease terms, as well as continued progress raising portfolio occupancy. Over the past two and a half years, as a relative newcomer to the Canadian reed landscape and with a strategy focused on what was, until recently, an out-of-favour property type, more than a few people have described Primaris as a show-me story. We are extremely pleased with the results we have been showing since the spin-out. Notable highlights include more than 700 basis points of occupancy improvement. Same property NOI growth approaching 20% aggregate growth over our first three years by the end of this year. Tenant average sales in our portfolio have risen more than 25% from $539 per square foot at Q2 2022 to $676 per square foot today. Notably, Simon Property Group reports average tenant sales of $745 per square foot. We acquired two of Canada's top 15 malls for $640 million in 2023 and are actively engaged with a number of potential vendors for a number of further acquisitions of similar caliber malls. We have also risen from the 19th largest constituents in the S&P TSX capped rate index to 14th place and expect to make further improvement in this ranking by year end. We received a triple B high stable investment grade credit rating from DBRS Morningstar. We have also built out a $1 billion unsecured debenture program. And perhaps most interestingly, we have absorbed 14 and a half cents per unit of higher interest expenses while still delivering positive FFO per unit growth and expect to see that FFO per unit growth accelerate from here. Our in-place weighted average interest rate of 5.2% is now above the marginal cost of a five-year unsecured debenture based on recent market pricing. In summary, the team at Primaris is collectively very proud of the track record we've been building over the past two and a half years since becoming a standalone REIT again and see significant runway for further growth. This future growth is expected to come from further occupancy gains, significant recovery ratio gains with higher occupancy and least standardization, the benefits of a growing and increasingly high productivity mall portfolio as management takes advantage of the REITs growing scale, as well as the benefits of the REITs differentiated financial model, allowing Primaris to compound capital at a significantly greater pace than our peers. We continue to be very active in discussions on several acquisitions and dispositions. We have the capacity for more than a billion and a half dollars of acquisitions and require no financing conditions in our deals. This profile as a well capitalized and credible counterparty is a real differentiator in what is currently a challenging transaction market for many. During the quarter, we closed on the sale of Garden City in Winnipeg, Manitoba for $31 million in line with our IFRS fair value. This is our first non-core income-producing property disposition entered into since the spinoff and aligns with our strategy to focus on owning a growing high-quality portfolio of leading enclosed shopping centres in Canada. This disposition improves our overall portfolio quality and growth profile demonstrates Primaris' ability to transact, and provides proceeds available to fund further acquisitions. During Q2, we also completed the tuck-in acquisition of the Zayers Grocery Store building and associated land for $19.7 million at Conestoga Mall in Waterloo. This building is connected to the mall and completes our ownership of the site, expanding the land area to 59 acres from 50 acres previously. I'll now turn the call over to Pat to discuss operating and leasing results, followed by Rags, who will discuss our financial results.